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"They won't win 8-0. What a stupid question that is!"
No quote would come back to bite a manager as hard as Netherlands coach Dick Advocaat's overconfident assertion that Sweden would not beat Luxembourg in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers by such a huge margin.
The Scandinavian side did exactly that and made it impossible for The Oranje to qualify. They needed a 7-0 win on the final day to overhaul Sweden's superior Goal Difference. A 2-0 win saw both teams finish with 19 points with Sweden going through thanks to the best Goal Difference in the group.
Arjen Robben, the last great Dutch star still around in the international circuit, promptly announced his retirement to focus on his club career and suddenly the Dutch squad looks bereft of world-class talent.
The future looks bleak for the Netherlands who have now failed to qualify for two consecutive tournaments (Euro 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup). How did it come to this?
1) Bad decision-making in picking the right coach
Netherlands may have never won the World Cup to actually be considered a footballing superpower but they have reached the final three times. They had finished runners-up in 2010 and finished in third place in the 2014 edition.
Louis van Gaal had exceeded expectations by managing a team that has historically been torn apart by egotistical personalities in the squad. When he was in charge, he literally was in charge and nobody dared upstage him in the dressing room.
The 2014 World Cup saw a rich mixture of youth and experience and it seemed like they were on the right track. But when Van Gaal took the Manchester United job, the Dutch FA (KNVB) made not one but two mistakes in replacing him.
They first appointed Guus Hiddink who had managed the team before in the '90s. Back then Hiddink had managed to mitigate any sort of internal politics and conflict to lead the Dutch team to the 1998 World Cup semi-finals.
However, his man-management skills and methods did not work this time and the team struggled to come together under his management, looking very disjointed on the pitch. When it became clear that they would not qualify for Euro 2016, he was sacked and his assistant Danny Blind was appointed.
That was KNVB's second mistake; not considering any other candidate for the job and persisting with Blind. After missing out on Euro 2016, Blind's flailing attempts to get the Dutch to qualify for the World Cup only compounded their misery and a 2-0 loss to Bulgaria was the final straw.
Instead of looking at a long-term replacement, the Dutch appointed Dick Advocaat who had little time to get things on track. A humiliating 4-0 defeat to France effectively ended their chances of qualifying and Sweden's thrashing of Luxembourg was the final nail in the coffin.
The three coaches picked as many as 53 different players, pointing to an obvious lack of planning and long-term vision as they continued to experiment in every other game without any consistency in naming squads.
2) Dutch Eredivisie is no longer an elite league
One look at the most successful and consistent teams in the world now show that a strong foundation is required to build a team (even from scratch). Germany and Spain are shining examples of how to build a title-winning squad and the fact that their respective leagues are among the best in the world underline the fact.
La Liga and Bundesliga are breeding grounds for world-class talent. Sadly, the Dutch Eredivisie is not. Back in the day, Dutch teams such as Ajax and PSV Eindhoven ruled Europe when both teams had won trebles in the '70s and '80s.
Now, the Eredivise sees only one team qualify for the Champions League directly. Netherlands are not even in the top 10 member nations with respect to the UEFA Coefficient. They now find themselves in 11th - below leagues such as Russia, Ukraine and even Turkey.
Without any significant investment and available sponsors, the Eredivise has now been reduced to a league that only serves to highlight young Dutch talent. The average age of the squads in the top Dutch clubs are between 23 and 24. In contrast, top Premier League sides have an average age of 27 to 28.
It is nothing more than a stepping stone to bigger things. But that leads to another problem altogether...
3) Young Dutch talents are unable to compete at the highest level
When was the last time we saw a Dutch prodigy take on the world? Probably a decade ago. Young players sometimes see a steep rise in popularity before making an ill-advised move to a bigger league where their sudden fall from elite to mediocrity is well recorded.
Take for example Memphis Depay. He was dubbed 'one of the best young players in the world' when he led PSV Eindhoven to the Eredivisie title in 2014/15. 22 league goals (28 in all competitions) rewarded him with interest from Manchester United where his career took a drastic turn for the worse.
The youngster finished the season with just two league goals where he quickly found himself on the bench despite taking the no.7 jersey. However, he did score in the Europa League - which was sadly his level of competition (just like other Dutch sides).
Other Dutch players who showed early promise and earned big moves include midfielder Jordy Clasie. Ronaldo Koeman saw it fit to spend £8m to bring him to Southampton but the only competition he managed to shine in was the League Cup where top teams played second-string sides.
Clasie now finds himself on loan at Belgian side Club Brugge after struggling to impress Mauricio Pellegrino who prefers playing Mario Lemina and Oriol Romeu in midfield.
4) No generation of players to bridge the gap in the national team
When Netherlands finished third in the 2014 World Cup, their squad had the right mix of experience and youth. The oldest player in the squad was Dirk Kuyt (33) while the likes of Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar were all 30 - approximately the peak age for most footballers.
But since then, the older core of players are still carrying the team with no youngsters in sight who can take up the mantle of seasoned professionals. With Robben gone, there is no longer a world class player in attack for the Oranje.
Van Persie and Huntelaar are 34 and cannot be counted on to lead the Dutch to the next international tournament (Euro 2020). Sneijder will be 36 in 2020 and may not hang around long enough to do so.
In the current squad, Robben was the top goalscorer with 37 goals. The next best is Georginio Wijnaldum with 7 goals. Among forwards, Depay has 6 goals and Ryan Babel (now 30) has 5 goals.
Apart from Davy Klaassen, Daley Blind and possibly Virgil van Dijk, there is nobody else one can count on to lead this side. 15 members of the squad that played in the qualifiers haven't even made 20 appearances for the national team of which 10 haven't even received 10 caps.
This gap is what needs to be addressed with long-term solutions put in place to ensure something like this never occurs ever again.
5) Dutch academies produce good players but not competitive teams
The home of Totaalvoetbal (Total Football) has world class academies churning out talents by the dozen. With Dutch legends such as Dennis Bergkamp and Edwin van der Sar taking care of day-to-day matters and business at Ajax and Giovanni van Bronckhorst at Feyenoord, the youth setup is in good hands.
However, while they are able to train a number of players who are technically sound, they have been unable to create a team capable of fighting for honours in the youth leagues.
Take for example the UEFA Youth League which is the youth version of the UEFA Champions League. Teams drawn in the same pots in the senior competition play each other in the Youth League as well.
However, Ajax have failed to establish themselves as serious contenders in the four years the competition has been in existence. While it is understandable that their senior teams would struggle in the face of top European clubs having better finances, that excuse doesn't hold water in the youth leagues.
Since the competition's inception in 2013/14, Ajax have only managed to reach the quarter-finals twice. PSV Eindhoven have never progressed beyond the Round of 16.
Until and unless these junior teams - which are predominantly Dutch - achieve success in the youth level, it is hard to envision them performing at the senior level.
